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Horace Tabor - His Life and The Legend (1981)
Front Cover Book Details
Genre Biography; Non-Fiction
Subject Industrialists - Colorado - Biography; Lieutenant governors - Colorado - Biography; Pioneers - Colorado - Biography; Tabor, Horace Austin Warner, 1830-1899
Publication Date 1981
Format Softcover
Publisher Pruett Publishing Company
Personal Details
Store AbeBooks
Purchase Price $8.99
Acquire Date 8/16/2017
Condition Good/--
Rating 0
Links Library of Congress
Product Details
LoC Classification F781.T322 S63
Dewey 328.73/092/4 B
ISBN 9780871085948
Cover Price $17.50
No. of Pages 395
First Edition No
Rare No
Notes/Review
This is the rags to riches to rags story of one of the larger than life figures in early Colorado history.

Everybody in Denver knows the Tabor name, even if they don't know anything about where the name comes from. He came from Vermont, via Kansas, and settled, eventually, in Leadville and Denver. He made is fortune in mining. That over simplifies things. He operated the general store and post office in a couple mining settlements that aren't even listed in my guide to Colorado ghost towns. His key to success was to grubstake miners who couldn't afford to pay him for the goods they bought from him.

After hitting the mining lottery, he invested his riches in all sorts of schemes and enterprises, including opera houses in Leadville and Denver. He ventured into politics, serving a term as Lt. Governor and a single month as US Senator. But politics didn't work out for him. Neither did real estate speculation, banking, newspapers, and so on.

His political career was damaged by his high profile divorce. He split with his first wife (who, it could be argued, was largely responsible for his success) to marry Baby Doe. Was she the first trophy wife? In any event, divorce wasn't done back then.

I give the book a solid 3 stars - it's not a prize winner, but does a decent job of telling the story. Includes notes, index, and bibliography.